We're at the end of another letter--however belatedly--and with it at a nice, round fifty different artists touched on. Left behind are handfuls of alternate albums, a scattering of singles, and, in this case, nothing but more singles and albums from the artists touched on. It's likely not a surprise that Coheed and Cambria compose a reasonably large amount of the remaining items. The Clash were the only band that matters (are the only band that mattered? How do we deal with that now? Is it still in the present, even though they are not? With, of course, Requisite requiescat in pace for Joe). In fact, beyond them, there's a bit more of Elvis Costello, Cursive, and The Church, no one left much to linger.
If I had my druthers--some of which I'm working on for future letters intentionally, sometimes just as coincidence of normal purchase, sometimes deliberately to see them here in the future. Of course, my friends ask me about artists here and there--no, sadly, I don't have any Can on vinyl (I did get into them through vinyl, interestingly--while I was not big on John's copy of Tago Mago in college, I grew into it after appreciating my dad's copy of Ege Bamyasi on LP), Carcass would continue to run a bit counter to the tastes of, well, almost everyone I know of reading this but I'd welcome appearing (and looked into, but Earache doesn't do heavy pressings, and there are some albums I'd be less pursuant of), I'm sure a few friends would appreciate a bit of Wendy Carlos's work appearing (and my friend Kyle who passed me Wheels of Fire does have some himself), and a copy of Cocteau Twins' Garlands would not go unloved in my hands either. CCR is a long-time love, but, like a lot of '60s artists I grew up appreciating, I've never run after their material on vinyl. It probably wouldn't be too much trouble to run into The Crucifucks (it's self-titled, if you're wondering), which I guess proves it doesn't quite hop into the "needs" pile for my records.
It would be nice to have the self-titled Clash or In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3--but at least those two bands did get to have a chance under the needle.
A mess of real life is intruding on my ability to do this--devoting the 30-90 minutes to listen, the handful of hours to write is not always easy, though some days a few could be worked in, I'd prefer not to rush through or half-ass any of them, as I own records I like, and I don't want to disrespect those works in comparative effort to those I give the time they deserve. Certainly, there are releases and bands I like more and less, and albums I like more and less, but I've never had much truck with trying to run extreme comparisons between largely unrelated works, so that doesn't much factor into it for me.
So, bear with me if you're in for this--I am still on it, and working out the timing kinks as best I can. I do get recommendations on occasion, but haven't always got the funds to throw at them (or even the ones I'd like myself!), though I'm not as opposed to them as I may come off. Thank you kindly to anyone sticking around here--and, most importantly--to anyone who has given one of these records a chance upon reading. I love a nice affirmation like anyone else, but I write this for the music, not for my writing.
We've got 23 letters to go, and I imagine a good number of both expected delights and surprises.
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